Shining star for Seawolves

The junior center anchors one of the 15-3-2 Seawolves' top two lines, with 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 20 games to lead the team in scoring.

Mick Colageo

MARION — Two years ago when Halle Silva was the new kid on the girls hockey team at Tabor Academy, senior linemates Taylor Craig and Haley Frade showed her the ropes. Craig and Frade left some big shoes to fill when they went on to play at Division I colleges, but now Silva is making a big footprint of her own on the program with her 4½ junior-size Bauer skates.

"She's really separated herself from kids in our program and kids in New England prep school hockey," said Tabor head coach Eric Long.

The junior center anchors one of the 15-3-2 Seawolves' top two lines, skating between fellow juniors Kaitlyn Spillane and Lillian Connolly. Her 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 20 games lead Tabor in scoring, and so do her 12 penalties, a byproduct of being trusted with lots of ice time.

"She's come a long way in her quickness and speed. She can separate now as an older kid," said Long. "Before she was fast — but a lot of kids are fast — she's fast and quick so she's really taken her game to the next level this year."

The 17-year-old comes from a puck-loving Acushnet family, and she was a freshman defenseman on the New Bedford varsity team. Not yet the 5 feet even she stands at today, Silva endured a baptism of fire in the rowdy world of boys high school hockey. She sustained a concussion and assorted bumps and bruises.

"I was hit pretty hard a lot. I know I caught a slapshot and broke a finger or two," she said.

A right-hander, Silva is the starting shortstop at Tabor, but hockey is her sport of passion so quitting was never on her radar. Transferring to Tabor, where she would repeat her freshman year in 2010-11, was discussed with her parents. When the Whalers visited ORR/Fairhaven for a game at the Travis Roy Rink, the ball started rolling in earnest.

"I love it here, I really do. I'm seeing all the great opportunities I can get, especially now, being in the middle of my junior year and being introduced to the college process," said Silva. "It's been so important, the relationships that you build, too, with all these girls. They're all my best friends."

The hockey is different and so are the bus rides to away games, where camaraderie is formed and hockey changes from one of many activities competing for a student's attention to a new family.

"It's such a difference than when I was with boys — Halle sits in the front and the boys do what they want in the back. I put my headphones in because I don't want to hear what they're talking about because God only knows," recalled Silva. "With the girls, it's gossip but it's girl talk. We're all sitting in the back and the coaches sit in the front — they put their headphones on."

They play the man in girls hockey, too, but Silva still had some unlearning to do last season when she broke her left leg in a leg-on-leg check in a game at Southfield School in Brookline.

"(The puck carrier) made the move and we both kind of collided. It was an accident. It was very awkward, I got the penalty," recalled Silva, who had just been cautioned by her coach because she already had a checking penalty, one she admitted was not an accident. "So he basically said, 'Be careful,' and I went out there and saw her in the middle of the ice with the puck and — first instinct — go hit her, because that's what I did when I played guys."

Silva got the worst of it and was sidelined for half the season. Upon her return, she chipped her tailbone in a crash against the end boards. Her loss was felt by her team.

"We were 6-2-1 at the break and we ended up 10-10 without her in the lineup," said Long. "She's a big part of our team and, when she went down, a lot of our scoring went with her. It really hurt her season last year."

From that point on, Silva has been on a mission. Her summer included camps and showcase tournaments like the Chowder Cup and others in Canada. She has honed her skills and developed her game into a fine blend of offense and defense.

"She's got a great skill set. You put the puck in her area, she can find it with her stick all the time and keep moving forward," said Long.

Silva gets a lot of her hockey wisdom from her father Eddie Silva, a court officer in New Bedford and Wareham who coaches the club hockey team at Roger Williams University. Eddie considers himself 5-7 on a good day. Halle's mother Kim is 4-11 and her 23-year-old brother Ryan, a construction manager and recent college graduate who started the RWU program, is 5-11.

"I talk to some colleges where they tell my coaches they have certain height requirements. Some coaches will say, 'You're too small,'" said Halle. "It's tough when I hear things like that and it kind of stings. It goes away because different coaches see different things, so hopefully I'll just find the right one."

For now, the right one is Tabor.

Thanks in major part to Silva's play, the Seawolves are 15-3-2 heading into their final two games as Cushing Academy visits today and Thayer Academy on Saturday. Tabor played eight of its first nine games on the road, and the resultant togetherness of time spent away from campus has shown up in their game.

Silva keys the Seawolves attack along with Samantha Davis, an outstanding sophomore from Pembroke who centers junior Raquel Pennoyer of Rehoboth and Nicole Donato of Duxbury. Davis, who is second on the team in scoring with 13-11-24 totals, is already getting noticed by Division I programs.

Silva makes no secret of the fact she also wants to play Division I college hockey, but she's also a high-level softball player. She has become interested in sports management and journalism, and remains intrigued by her father's career in law enforcement. Wherever she attends college, the only certainty is that Halle Silva will be competitive.